Wednesday, 26 November 2014

On the Cornish Guardian website there is a story written by Graham Smith. He claims I answered a question which I did not and attributes words to me which I never said.

Mr Smith rang me on Monday to tell me that he and a photographer intended to 'doorstep' me. He then asked me if I had any response to what the council had said. I asked him if we could speak off the record. He agreed. I then said that I would be updating my blog later that day.

Mr Smith then asked me a question about the police investigation in 2006. I told him that I would not be answering that question. He suggested that if I did not answer then his readers would jump to conclusions. I said that I would not be answering his question and ended the call.

Mr Smith has made up a quote which I never said or anything like it.

I have made a formal complaint to the editor of the paper and, if I do not receive an apology and correction I will be making a complaint to the press complaints commission. I reserve the right to take legal action against Mr Smith, the paper and anyone who repeats the libel.

Monday, 24 November 2014

Radio
Cornwall has carried the news that Cornwall Council is to commission an
independent inquiry into the handling of false claims made about me. I
cautiously welcome this acceptance by the council that there are
significant question marks over the process they have followed.

The
inquiry will be able to review the process by which decisions were
taken behind closed doors and judgments reached without my having the
chance to read and respond to the allegations against me. Indeed, I have
still only received a list of claims and no actual evidence from the
council that could lead them to reach the conclusions they have. I am told the inquiry will also look into the decision to make accusations against me in letters to local schools and sports clubs, and the decision by the council to press release this. I hope that it will also cover data protection issues.I
fully expect to be given the chance to have my say to this inquiry and
look forward to doing so. I thank the many hundreds of people who have
been in touch with me to offer their support and good wishes.

Thursday, 20 November 2014

Today,
the chief executive of Cornwall Council, Andrew Kerr, took the
incredible step of issuing a press release trying to force me to resign.
I had planned on posting something short to assert my innocence of any
wrongdoing. But the nature of the council press statement - which was
released without any warning or notification - and Mr Kerr’s tactics in
trying to bully me out of office deserve something more.

Here is the truth.In
2006 (and before I became a councillor) I was one of many people who
was arrested when credit or debit card details were found which linked
the cardholders to a site containing indecent images of children. I have
never viewed any such images nor had I ever visited the site or any
others like it. I was able to show the police that my card had been
cloned at some time in the past and used illegally for various things
including a hotel in Brazil. I reported that at the time and my bank
refunded the money. Of course I cannot be sure, but that is how I
believe my card details came to be linked to the site as it fits the
time my card was used fraudulently. When details are stolen on the
internet they tend to come in a package and hackers can also have access
to your address, email, password, phone, IP address, etc, which can
easily be cloned and used by another person to cover their own identity
and make it look like the victim of their fraud is the guilty party. The
police searched my computer and other electronic devices I owned. Because
I had done nothing wrong, and therefore there was no evidence against
me, the police did not bring any charges and they told me the matter was
closed.

I
cannot blame the police for investigating based on the information they
received. The whole episode put me through a huge trauma but I am
reassured that they took such matters very seriously and I am glad that
they were able to establish my innocence as they did.In
2009 when I was elected to Cornwall Council my arrest was flagged up in
an enhanced CRB check. I discussed this matter with the chief legal
officer of the council. He told me that he would discuss it with the
(then) leader Councillor Alec Robertson. I heard no more about this from
the legal officer, Mr Robertson or anyone else. I assume that they took
the view, quite rightly, that the matter was properly dealt with by the
police and considered closed.

At
some point within the past few weeks someone raised the matter with
officers within Cornwall Council’s child protection team. Since then,
anonymous letters and emails have been sent to the press and to
opposition councillors. There seems to be a concerted campaign against
me. Those first emails started a very difficult period in which meetings
were held about me without my knowledge or involvement to discuss
information and claims which they refuse to share with me. I have
repeatedly asked officers for the information they received to be passed
on to me so that I can refute it. They refused to do so. That limited
information which has been shared with me I know to be untrue and they
have not offered any evidence to support their outrageous claims. Given
that they refused to share the information they had, I asked officers
for time to go through the laborious process of requesting the
information from the various organisations concerned which would prove
their claims to be wrong. They refused to give me this time and convened
another secret meeting which passed judgement. They then made deeply
libellous and completely untrue statements to organisations, other
councillors and the media. Nevertheless, I have started the process
(which is likely to take some months) of seeking the information held
and then correcting it where it is false. All they have told me is that
everything relates to the original investigation in 2006 and that there
have been no concerns or claims made about me relating to any time
before or since.

It
seems that officers are more concerned with covering their own backs
than with establishing the truth. They seem to think they know better
than the police did back in 2006 when they had all the evidence and were
able to conduct a full and thorough investigation. On two occasions,
whilst denying me the information on which they based their apparent
judgement, Mr Kerr has demanded my resignation.In
the circumstances, in an effort to protect myself, my friends, my
family and the council from harm, I chose to resign from the cabinet so
that I could focus on proving my innocence. Sadly, the matter has become
public, solely because to the actions of the chief executive who has
bullied and harassed me and others throughout the process. He has
consistently refused to give me or my lawyer the information that is
being used to damn me. Nor has he allowed me the time to correct the
wrong information held about me. Instead, he is briefing others within
the council about the issue - claiming to pass on ‘facts’ which he
refuses to share with me. I know the allegations are untrue and I am
determined to prove it.

Now
he has ordered officers to write to various organisations within
Launceston and elsewhere to make claims which are untrue, which are
deeply damaging to me and which I have not been given a chance to
refute. Quite incredibly, he then chose to press release the fact that he had done so. As
I have stated above, the police looked into these matters fully and did
not find evidence to charge me because I had never done anything
wrong.

The lesson from this episode seems to be two-fold:

It
does not matter if you are wholly innocent of any crime. An accusation
based the fraudulent use of stolen bank details can nevertheless ruin
your entire life.

Senior
officers within Cornwall Council have no concept of natural justice and
can force an elected politician out of his job through a kangaroo
court.

I
remain hugely grateful to everyone who has sent me kind messages, both
since I stepped down from the cabinet and since this news broke. I
intend continue to work my hardest for the people of Launceston and for
Cornwall as a whole.

In
the circumstances, I have invited my party, the Liberal Democrats, to
look into the matter under its own disciplinary processes. I have
voluntarily suspended my membership of the party and the whip on the
council for the duration of this process.At
the same time, I will be taking a leave of absence from the council for
a few weeks in order to be able to obtain and correct the
misinformation held on me, and whilst the party investigation is
undertaken. I am grateful to my colleagues for their support which
allows me to do this, and local people can be reassured that all
casework and other inquiries will be properly and quickly dealt with.

But
Cornwall Council needs to take a serious look at the person in charge.
Mr Kerr is a tiny crumb of a human being. He is a bully who decided
straight away that, despite the fact I had done nothing wrong, I needed
to be forced out. He presided over the kangaroo court which passed
judgement against me having refused to even allow me to see any
evidence. When I refused his demands to resign from the council he came
up with a scheme to bring this matter to public attention through the
letters to local sports clubs and his press release today.

So here are some questions for the council:

Why,
when the council knew all about my arrest - and the fact the police
took no further action against me - back in 2009, did they then do
nothing at all until the past few weeks? Where does that leave the chief
legal officer, Richard Williams? Sadly for Mr Williams, given that he
understands the law and justice, I suspect that Mr Kerr will be bullying
him out of a job soon too.

Why
does the council refuse to give me access to any of the claims,
evidence, or information laid against me so that I can offer a proper
defence?

Why
did the council take the extraordinary step of writing to local
organisations claiming that I am a danger of children when I have never
been charged with, let alone convicted of, any wrongdoing?

Why
was Mr Kerr allowed to press release this matter without any warning,
putting me and others in danger of some sort of vigilante action given
the incredibly partial and untrue statements given to the press?

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Cornwall Council has published their final report and evaluation of the TRAC and CYCLE projects in and around Launceston, Bude and Caradon Hill. The project failed to deliver many of its objectives.

There will be a meeting at 6pm next Tuesday to discuss the project and report. I'm grateful to council officers Peter Marsh and Steve Wood for coming to make a presentation and answer questions. The meeting is open to the public and will be at the Town Hall - Otho Peter Room - at 6pm.

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Today I have resigned as a member of Cornwall Council's cabinet. This is the text of the letter I sent to the Leader, John Pollard:

Dear John

As you know, I am currently
dealing with a personal issue. I am therefore writing to tender my resignation
from the cabinet with immediate effect.

I would like to say
what an honour it has been to be part of Cornwall's cabinet. I believe
that we have achieved a huge amount. The new budget is extremely tough
but I believe that it is the fairest and best way of addressing the
challenge that Cornwall faces over the next four years. We have managed
to cut huge amounts of waste in order to focus on high quality front
line services and I believe we have done our best for Cornwall.

I
hope and expect to be able to address the personal issues I am dealing
with and one day to be in a position to regain my seat at cabinet. But
that is for sometime in the future. In the meantime I wish you and my
other colleagues well. I thank you all for your support, but
particularly Jeremy who has been unflinching in his support and advice
throughout our time on the council.

I will continue to work my hardest for the people of Launceston.

Yours ever

Alex

This is his reply:

Dear Alex

Thank you for your letter, please accept this email as my acceptance of your resignation.

Comments Policy

Owing to a spate of recent anonymous trolls, I have had to up the comments moderation on this blog. I'll publish anything that is on-topic and not defamatory or illegal- however much I disagree with it - so long as you use your real name.